Beelzebub send me a map he made, named Gargantua Pit (based on GargHunt by Craig Londale). It's a lot roomier than GargHunt, with 2 Gargantuas, so you should be able to get quite a few players into it without it getting cramped. BTW, this is the first map that Beelzebub has created, so don't complain if it's not perfect. Download it from the Files page! (unpack to your \Half-Life\ directory with directories enabled).

Craig Londale is currently working on Onslaught, the sequel to Horde. The map is larger and much harder, intended for a larger amount of players than Horde was. An early version of the map's currently in testing, so hopefully it won't be too long before it's finished.

Willi's not back from Hawaii yet, so it may be quite a while before v1.3 is finished... I'm around half-way through SvenCoop2, now... that's not counting inserting the speech (which I don't have yet, the lines aren't finalized) and general tweaking, though. Don't expect it anytime soon :(. Wish I was able to do this full-time :), could make the story much more interesting if I could spread it out more.

Saturday, 7 August, 1999

SvenCo-op v1.3 delayed Updated By Sven Viking @ 09:00 NZST

Willi (the Oz DM guy who's doing all the work on v1.3) is leaving for Hawaii tomorrow (which is today, here)... he's been pretty busy and, due to unforeseen circumstances, he won't be able to finish the v1.3 DLL off before he leaves :/.

As much as he'd love to cancel his trip to Hawaii so as to work on the SvenCo-op DLL, it just isn't possible. It is possible, however, that he'll be able to do some work on the DLL on his laptop, while away... I mean, how much can there be to do in Hawaii, anyway? Surely nothing better than coding ;).

Sorry all, but there's not much to be done about it. He should be back in around 2 weeks.

<not a rant, but in a rant-like style> SvenCoop2 is coming along... still haven't decided how long to make it. I could finish it up asap, with just the rooms needed for the plot, but that'd mean that there'd be no really big fight in the game (except the climax, but I'm hoping to make that scary rather than fighty)... and I could make one big "fight" type room, but it'd be nice to have a turret room as well. I could try to make a turret-and-fight room, but that causes problems, too :). I'll work something out.. will have to soon, nearly finished the current rooms off. </not rant>

IMPORTANT:If you downloaded a version of this map from anywhere other than here (the SvenCo-op site), it was a beta version released for testing. You must download the final version to be able to play on servers running the map! (anyway, there's quite a few new surprises and several bugs have been fixed).

From the maker of GargHunt (Craig Londale) comes a new SvenCo-op map... In "Horde", a few Black Mesa employees (the players) fight a losing battle against an alien horde...

"You and your comrades have dug in and barricaded the doors,but who knows how long your makeshift barriers will last before the alienspound through? You'll never survive...

... but it'll be one helluva ride trying."

(check the README for more info). You can download the map from the Files page.. extract it to your \Half-Life\ directory (not SvenCoop directory), with Directories enabled (best to use Winzip or similar).

Tuesday, 20 July, 1999

SvenCo-op v1.3 "soon" Updated By Sven Viking @ 11:11 NZST

A new version of SvenCo-op should be out in a couple of weeks (or similar).. this version will actually contain some new features :). The new version should blend most of Oz Deathmatch's features with SvenCo-op, as well as fixing a few problems... The new version is courtesy of Willi (and the rest of the Oz DM team).

If you'd like to suggest anything for the update, you can E-mail me.. keep in mind that your suggestion probably won't be used, though :). Even if it's a great idea, it'll probably be too hard (if not impossible) to add. It might be added in a future version, though (maybe).

Try to keep the suggestions fairly simple, thanks (i.e. not things like "You should add more monsters" or "Make the normal Half-Life single-player maps work perfectly in co-op"! :) ).

I've been getting an amount done on SvenCoop2.bsp, BTW, but there's still a loong way to go :/. Might be able to get some of the Aftershock mappers to make some maps, when they're not too busy with CCTF maps.

"SvenCo-op v1.2" is up on the Files page.. don't get your hopes up, though! It's not full of new maps and features or anything :). It's mostly just the mod and all the maps in one installer file, although it does include new menu buttons/backgrounds (thanks to Teq !), a couple of tiny tweaks, and a slightly better Readme file.

Generally, if you have all the maps/etc., you don't really need to download the new version. It does clean everything up a bit, though, and things look more interesting with different menu buttons/etc. :). Realistic falling damage is now off by default, so playing GargHunt should be a lot easier.

The reason I put this file together is that SvenCo-op will probably be on the cover CD of next month's PC Gamer (US version, on sale around the 13th of August), along with Oz DM. This isn't definite, I don't know much about what's going on yet, will post something else about it when I get more info.

About SvenCoop2.bsp: I've still been working on it, but it may take even longer than I thought to finish... shouldn't have even started on it, really.. have too much other stuff to do. I'll keep working on it, but everyone's best to think of it as being "on hold".. that way, if I ever finish it, it'll be a pleasant surprise :). (I'm fairly certain that I will finish it, but I have no idea of when that'll be).

Wednesday, 30 June, 1999

Update... Updated By Sven Viking @ 17:35 NZST

Got some more of SvenCo-op2 done. Been feeling sorta sick, only have the chubby-code and the beginning "sequence" working so far.. have to work out what to try for. Have some great ideas, but they'd be a lot of work and take ages... trying to work out something good but economical. As I said B4, don't expect it to be finished anytime soon.

I think I have all the Chubby sounds I need (2 :), going to contact the guy who did Tor's voice to make sure that he'll be able to do the new WAVs (when I work out what they'll be). There might be a new character that I'll need WAVs for, but don't know yet.

In case anyone's been wondering where Atomic Half-Life went (previously http://halflife.gameplex.net/ ), I've recently found out that the server admin has permanently shut down Gameplex, so the site is gone... I wasn't given any warning, or even told what had happened. None of this was Gameplex's fault, they weren't told either. The moral of the story is: Don't trust server admins!

I have everything backed up, but don't think I'll be going to the trouble of getting the site hosted somewhere else.. could hardly keep it updated anyway, and this way I'll have more time to spend on SvenCo-op.. I'll miss Atomic, though... will miss people E-mailing me with stupid questions (as well as lots of good questions, of course :) ), will miss getting updates before most other people, and will miss the completely imaginary feeling of importance (see cartoon from the 31st of May). Oh well :(.

The good news is, I've started making SvenCoop2.bsp (continuation of SvenCoop1)... don't expect it anytime soon, though. I have no idea of when I'll have it finished, don't even know how large it'll be.. could be months :). Depends on how much time I get, etc. Better than nothing, though... rather less people than I'd expected have been making maps (almost none :( ).

Monday, 31 May, 1999

Blah Updated By Sven Viking @ 15:00 NZST

Just BTW, SvenCo-op seems to be more popular than I thought... been getting a lot of good feedback, lots of hits to the site (far more than I'd expected), and although it wasn't really intended to be played on the Internet (monsters create lotsa lag), quite a few people are running (temporary) servers. Have tried playing on a few of them, and although the lag's pretty terrible, it's still a lot of fun (depending on who else is in the game with you). Other thanneeding more maps, things are going pretty well !

(to tell the truth, the stuff above was all just an excuse to post this comic :)

Friday, 22 May, 1999

SvenCo-op merges with Aftershock Updated By Sven Viking @ 14:30 NZST

SvenCo-op has sorta "merged" with Aftershock Productions (makers of Oz DM and Classic CTF). Hopefully, this'll mean that SvenCo-op can be expanded further than it would otherwise have been (their coders should be able to help me with some stuff, etc.)... also, it means that I'll have access to all the Telefragged mirrors, so I can put the Mappers' page up (and hopefully start collecting co-op maps for every1 to play).

To mappers: Please go HERE for info on making co-op maps and/or converting your maps to co-operative! Making co-op maps is generally the same as making single-player maps, and converting SP maps is normally easy (depending on whether they have map transitions or not).